CURRICULUM CONCEPT

Introduction
This topic entails definition of curriculum concept and other concepts in curriculum field. The
topic goes further in describing the basic elements of a curriculum as well as curriculum
dimensions

Topic objectives
By the end of the topic, the student should be able to;
 Define curriculum under narrow and broad dimensions
 Explain curriculum concept as a field of study
 Explain the dimensions of curriculum
 Describe the elements of curriculum

What is Curriculum?

The term curriculum appeared in education in the early part of the 20th Century with the first
publication of Franklin Bobbitt’s book, called The Curriculum. Bobbit was greatly influenced by
the principles of scientific management that were being used in industry and he set about
applying them in education. After the World War 1, there was a lot of industrial growth,
increased immigration, rapid urbanization and technological development which as a result had
profound effects on the social, economic and political life of people.

Bobbit’s book therefore the first ever written on curriculum, set the tone and established the
nature of the field of curriculum. The value of scientific management in industry was to
eliminate waste and inefficiency, and to maximize productivity and profits. According to Okech,
J and Asiachi, A (1992), research studies were conducted to identify the components of
various jobs. This resulted in wasteful actions being eliminated and exact standards of efficiency
being set for each job.
Scientific management principles were applied to education in the years that followed and this
meant that pupils were to be treated as raw material to be processed and transformed into a
product.

However, the term curriculum cannot be defined without first defining the term education which
will often be used in the definition of curriculum.

According to Dewey (1938) education refers to the process of remaking or reconstituting

experience. The definition emphasis the creative role of education in society by stressing the
development of a creative individual

Harris view education as process by which an individual or self –active human being is enabled
to become informed of the accumulated wisdom of the race. He recognized that this process is by
no means confined to the school.

According to Oluoch, G (1982) education is defined as the process of acquiring and developing
desired knowledge, skills and attitudes. The word process has been used to underscore the fact
that education is a continuous activity that never ends .similarly, the word develop has been used
to underscore the fact that acquiring knowledge, skills and attitudes is not a one shot affair, but
that acquisition of more and more knowledge, skills and attitudes is necessary so as to deepen
and widen what has already been acquired.

Tyler (1971) education as conscious effort by some social institution, in this case, the system of
education, to promote certain approved ideas and values of the community. i.e. total way of life
of the community.

Curriculum defined
The term curriculum has been defined by different scholars and educators. It has been defined as
all that is planned to enable the students acquire and develop the desired knowledge, skills and
attitudes (Oluoch, 1982).
Bobbit definition as quoted by ( Okech and Asiachi,1992) defined a curriculum as ‘those series
of things which children and youth must do and experience by way of developing ability to do
the things well that make up the affairs of adult life’.

Kerr (1968) looks at a curriculum as ‘all the learning which is planned or guided by the school,
whether it is carried on in groups or individually, inside or outside school.’

Many scholars have of curriculum have been trying to come up with a more comprehensive
definition. Saylor and Alexander (1954) defined a curriculum as ‘the total effort to the school to
bring about desired outcomes in school and out of school situation.

The definition includes;

 Those activities which may be undertaken in the class or outside class whose
experiences are provided in the subject areas
 The out of school programmes-comprise of activities that children take in groups
either in the class or outside e.g. the co-curricular activities like games. Clubs rallies
etc
 The created environment in which pupils learn more or less unconsciously by
exposure these include role modeling e.g. copying the lifestyles of teachers ,pupils
learn to be clean as a result of living in a clean environment.

Curriculum in addition, can be defined in a narrow and a broad way. An attempt to arrange them
in such a way that the narrowest come first and the broadest come last according to (Shiundu and
Omulando, 1992) is as follows;

 Curriculum is what examiners require teachers to emphasis in their teaching

 Curriculum is what should be taught in a particular subject
 Curriculum is the sum total of the syllabuses of the school
 Curriculum is a combination of classroom and out of classroom activities carried out
under the aegis of a school in response to societal demands.
  Curriculum consists of the continuous chain of activities necessary for translating
educational goals into concrete, materials and observable behavioural change.
Further, the centre for education a curriculum should be concerned with the whole moral,
intellectual, emotional and social development of the pupil.

ELEMENTS OF SCHOOL CURRICULUM

Having defined curriculum, it is now possible to identify the basic features of the school
curriculum. Curriculum designs contain major elements.
Different scholars have identified main elements of a school curriculum as follows;

Shiundu and Omulando (1992), identifies three major elements of curriculum design namely;
o Objectives of curriculum
o The learning experiences as a means of achieving those objectives
o The evaluation process for appraising the effectiveness of the programme
or measuring the extent to which objectives have been achieved.

According to Oluoch et al (1982), the elements of school curriculum are presented in three main
elements and three main dimensions. They comprises of;
o Curriculum objectives
o Learning activities and
o student assessment
Elements in this case refer to parts of a curriculum while dimensions refer to its aspect. The three
dimensions include formal, non- formal and informal dimension.

Oluoch (1982) conceptual framework of three identified elements are is presented below
including the three earlier mentioned dimensions;
 OBJECTIVES

STUDENT ASSESMENT
LEARNING ACTIVITIES

FORMAL DIMENSION
NON FORMAL DIMENSION
INFORMAL DIMENSION

Fig 1: Conceptual framework of a school curriculum

Further Okech and Asiachi (1992), identifies four major elements namely;
o aims ,goals and objectives
o learning experiences
o content and
o experience
According to them the approach of identifying four elements in curriculum development seems
to focus strictly on the objectives model of curriculum development since such a model attempts
to improve the organization and practice in our education system by attempting to identify the
end product in education.

An American scholar and educationist, Ralph Tyler, published a book in 1949 entitled, The
Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction where he identified four fundamental questions
which must be faced in the process of curriculum development.
The questions formed the basic guidelines for curriculum development in many countries .the
questions follow a sequence;
a) What educational purposes should the school seek to attain? i.e. the objectives we
hope to attain from our teaching and the qualities of mind ,knowledge ,skills and
values we want our pupils to acquire.
b) what educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes
?i.e. the activities and programmes of work that will be suitable for achieving these
objectives
c) How can these educational experiences be effectively organized?
d) How can we determine whether these desirable purposes are being attained?

The four elements as identified by Okech and Asiachi (1992) are diagrammatically presented
below;
 AIMS /GOALS /OBJECTIVES

CONTENT
ORGANIZATION OF LEARNING SUBJECT MATTER
EXPERIENCES/METHOD

EVALUATION

Fig 2: Fundamental elements of curriculum

To understand these elements better, each element is considered;

1) Aims, Goals and Objectives

Since the curriculum is a means by which we strive to achieve the aims of education, it is
necessary to spell out those aims as the first step in curriculum planning. Aims and objectives
start from the national level and are gradually elaborated and refined right down to the classroom
level and even to the individual learner .At this level the aims of education are translated into
more specific objectives i.e. in behavioural changes that we expect to occur in the learners.
It is therefore the responsibility of curriculum developers and teachers to state clear objectives
for the various aspects of the curriculum and these should be consistent with the general aims of
education of the school as a whole, for each class and lesson. For example, the secondary
school curriculum objectives should be in line with the aims of secondary education and those of
education as a whole in Kenya. These objectives should appear at all the levels of the
curriculum; in the syllabus; the units therein; in the schemes of work and in the actual classroom
instruction.
NB: These objectives should be made more specific as the curriculum comes closer to the
learners and should spell out the specific and immediate behavioural changes expected in them.

ii) Learning experiences

Objectives are defined as the changes in behaviour that we expect in the learners or the ends to
be attained by the educational programme. To be able to achieve (1949) the term ‘learning
experience’ refers to the interaction between the learner and the external conditions in the
environment to which we can react. This includes those activities that enable the learner to
interact with this assorted environment within the school setting; eg the people and facilities that
provide the opportunity for useful interaction such as teachers, resource materials, fellow
learners, resource persons, teaching methods etc. Through this process the child acquires skills,
knowledge and attitudes by forming search learning activities.
Since experiences involve student interaction with the environment, a teacher is expected to be
manipulative to enable them to become actively involved in the process of learning. A number of
features are in the environment which attract the attention of the learner and make him react to
them.
 A teacher can provide relevant educational experiences which promote learning by doing
the following according to (Okech and Asiachi,1992);

o The teacher to set up environment and to structure the situation in order to stimulate the
type of reaction desired.

o He /she must be able to understand the interests and backgrounds of the students in his
class.

o The teacher must be able to make forecasts about situations that would elicit the
necessary reactions towards the desired learning.
o The teacher must control learning experiences by manipulating the student’s environment
which calls for setting up of stimulating situations with many dimensions for learning.

 Similarly the teacher can select among many, the learning experiences that will be
appropriate to the learner’s different background by looking at Tyler’s suggestions on in
his book, Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction where he states that;

a) A student must have experiences which will provide him with an opportunity to practice
the kind of behaviour implied by the objective stated.eg one objective that will help the
child develop ability and skills in problem solving in mathematics .A student must be
given experiences which provide him with time and opportunity to practice the skills.

b) The experiences provided must be those that will give satisfaction to the student while
carrying out the expected activities implied in the objectives eg in order for cleaning the
environment skills to be developed ,the learner should be given the opportunity to clean
either a store, class ,road etc

c) The learning experience should be planned in such a manner that they are not beyond the
physical and mental ability of the student. The teacher should start from known to
unknown.

d) many learning experiences provide opportunities for achieving the same objectives ;eg
group discussions ,writing ,excursions etc

e) If learning experiences are well planned by the teachers, they will produce several
results.eg students involved in reading novels will develop in comprehension,
appreciation and literary interest which will be beneficial for future academic pursuits.

NB: The ability to achieve one objective using several learning experiences will depend
largely on the creativity of the teacher during the planning stage of learning activities.
 Thirdly, the teacher is advised to choose the type of learning experiences that will be
useful and relevant, based on the objectives. There are kinds of learning experiences that
teachers need to select to achieve the stated objectives according to Oluoch (1992);
 a) First kind of learning experience to be selected is that which will develop skills in
thinking.ie the ability of a learner to relate two or several ideas and not merely
cramming, remembering and repeating them at random.

b) acquiring information-the experience will involve objectives such as developing an

understanding of particular concepts ,things etc

c) The other learning experience is for developing social attitudes ie objectives would be
those of social studies, literature, Arts .P.E and co-curricular activities.

d) The fourth type of learning experiences is for developing interest among students.
Learning experiences for developing interest should give opportunities to students to
explore areas of interest and those that will provide satisfaction.

iii) Content
The syllabus contains the aims of education and lists down the subjects to be taught to children
in all classes beginning with standard one to standard eight in case of a primary school syllabus.
A typical curriculum design usually lists the subjects and topics to be covered or courses to be
split into units as well as indicating the sequences of organizing them.
There are several decisions that schools teachers make regarding the curriculum content .Some
of these include which parts of the syllabus to emphasize and which to cover quickly. In addition
a decision is made on how to match the content of the national syllabus with the local conditions
and local realities. The timetable is also a very important element of content (Okech and Asiachi,
1992).Just as much the numbers of periods allocated are important, the time of the day at which
lessons are organized is equally important.
Another decision that can be considered is the issue of integration of some subjects for example
at primary level by national curriculum centre such as the K.I.E .e.g. where history, geography
and civics are within social studies syllabuses. However school teachers can decide to reinforce
language and mathematics skills in every subject they teach or ignore them since what is taught
in primary schools in Kenya is also influenced by national examinations. Emphasis on certain
subjects increases with upward progression.
iv) Curriculum evaluation.
Evaluation is a process of determining the extent to which curricula objectives are being or have
been achieved (Shiundu and Omulando, 1992).Any curriculum or instructional plan must have
an evaluation component .it a plan that is geared some set objectives and it must be possible to
find out whether these objectives have been achieved or whether the instructional programme
was effective. Evaluation should be based on some criteria (Okech and Asiachi, 1992) notably
consistent with objectives, valid, reliable, with continuity and being comprehensive.
Lawton suggests two major aspects of evaluation namely;
 Valuing –determining the value or utility of a particular program, course or educational
system.

 Measuring –determining the actual educational outcomes and comparing them with the
intended outcomes e.g. measuring the extent to which a pupil has learned as a result of a
particular programme.

In Kenya, examinations are the most commonly used as the means of evaluating the
achievement and progress of student performance. A lot of criticisms are leveled at
examinations as the only means of determining student’s achievement in schools, and having
a constraining influence on the school curriculum. Oluoch et al (1992) suggests ways in
which schools can and should measure how far their objectives have been attained;
 By continuing monitoring and assessment of the work which learners do day by
day, week by week and month by month. Such evaluations do not only help us to
evaluate how far an expected learning outcome has been achieved, but also
enables us to recognize individual strengths and weaknesses in learners and plan
how to overcome them.

 By observing and recording the behaviour of learners-this helps in measuring the

effectiveness of psychomotor objectives which are so vital in education. The
students’ records are as important as the lists of examination marks.

However, all the decisions related to building, changing and improving the curriculum largely
depend on the data emanating from evaluation, a task which must go on throughout the process
of curriculum development.
DIMENSIONS OF CURRICULUM

The three dimensions of school curriculum may be identified as formal, non-formal and
informal;

Formal dimension

Formal dimension of a school curriculum refers to that aspect of the school curriculum which
consists of those learning activities that students undertake formally as a class, as well as the
curriculum objectives and student assessment methods that relate to them (Oluoch 1982).These
activities may be carried out inside or outside classrooms, or even the school compound but
usually undertaken by students as formal class work.

It comprises the formal courses of study or that which is officially prescribed in the school
syllabus in the form of subjects like Geography, English and Mathematics etc. The syllabus will
normally show the objectives and content to be covered as well as the methodology, evaluation
procedures and learning resources. The regular school subjects prescribed in the syllabus and
presented to various class levels based mainly on age.

The choice and allocation of time available for learning is also an important component of the
formal dimension of the curriculum.

Non – formal dimension

Non – formal dimension includes those learning activities that are traditionally referred to as
extra- curricular activities and more recently as co-curricular or as intra- curricular activities
(Oluoch et al 1992). These activities do not appear in the written syllabus and yet they occupy a
substantial amount of students’ time, and contribute significantly to the achievement of
educational aims. The systems which emphasize academic education certainly do not appear to
favour these activities (Shiundu and Omulando 1992)
However the non-formal activities occur outside the grading systems, that is, there are no
activities restricted to a specific grade as students mix freely across the grades and perform these
activities, although the age element is crucial in organizing them. Some of the activities in
schools that form the non –formal dimensions include games, sports, clubs societies and field
excursions.

Some of the characteristics of the non formal activities include;

 They are organized in a less rigid manner than subject matter or course work
 They are organized according to student’s ability, interest, aptitude and
chronological age.
 At the end of the term ,the teachers give remarks in the students report showing
participation in co-curricular activities
 In addition, the atmosphere in which these activities occur is free and relaxed
the by-products of the formal

Informal dimension;

Informal dimension is a term that has replaced what some curriculum scholars called the ‘hidden
curriculum’ the non-academic but educationally significant consequences of school Urevbu 1985
as quoted in Shiundu (1992).These are all the unplanned and spontaneous experiences at school
that influence the learners behaviour .They could be either by-products of the formal and non-
formal programmes or of the entire school environment comprising the programmes ,personnel,
fellow-students ,guests and the physical environment of the school.

Many students copy or emulate the behaviour of their teachers and fellow students e.g.
undisciplined students who join schools with high standards of standards and an atmosphere of
hard work have been able to change and become disciplined hard workers.
Informal or indirect learning which occurs to learners in schools is learned unconsciously.
Language, standards of behaviour, deeds and even ability to think may be learned through
imitation. To imitate, children requires models or people who will influence their mind. Models
may be peers, teachers or other people in the school environment. Whatever a child imitates or
identifies from the models may be either positive or negative behaviour (Okech and Asiachi,
1992).

NB: The richer the environment, the more the opportunities of benefiting from this curriculum
dimension.

Revision Questions

1. What is a curriculum?

2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of testing/evaluating students

only through the KNEC

3. With the use of both primary and secondary syllabus ,highlight all the
stated objectives

4. Suggest possible causes of teachers failure to meet the suggested

objectives and give possible solutions

5. Differentiate between formal, non-formal and informal dimensions of

education.

6. There is an outcry in the country that the Kenyan graduates are not
meeting the expectations of the society. discuss